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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Swordlord [Fighter Subclass, PEACH]



Amiel
2019-02-23, 06:14 AM
SWORDLORD

The archetypal Swordlord excels at swordplay. Stemming from the noble tradition of the duel, Swordlords have taken this noble tradition to an obsessive art, becoming singular masters of the slashing blade and masters of the slashing retort.

ARMOR OF BLADES
Swordlords weave a nigh impenetrable net of steel around themselves. While wearing no armor and wielding a slashing weapon in one hand and nothing in the other, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Strength modifier.

Parry. You are tremendously adept at lessening the effect of strikes directed against you. When a creature damages you with a melee attack, you can roll 1d8 as a reaction to reduce the damage by the number you roll.
You can make this reaction a number of times equal to your Strength modifier (minimum of once) or Dexterity modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a short or a long rest.

Riposte. You are tremendously adept at retorting with staggering force against strikes directed against you. When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can roll 1d8 as a reaction in addition to making a melee weapon attack against the creature. If you hit, you add the number you roll to the attack's damage roll.
You can make this reaction a number of times equal to your Strength modifier (minimum of once) or Dexterity modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a short or a long rest.

PROJECTION OF BLADES
At 7th level, you learn to slice through the gaps of reality and strike at enemies at distance. You can strike creatures up to 30 feet away as a melee weapon attack.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a short or long rest.

ONE WITH THE BLADE
At 10th level, you make a flourish with your blade and vanish into it to make a slashing attack against creatures at up to a 30 foot range. Make a melee weapon attack against up to five creatures you can see within range. You can end your movement within 5 feet of one of the targets you hit or missed.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a short or long rest.

BLADED MOMENTUM
Starting at 15th level, you have near absolute mastery of the blade. You can give yourself a bonus to your initiative rolls equal to your Strength modifier. At the start of your first turn of each combat, you can recklessly charge into the fray, your walking speed increases by 30 feet, which lasts until the end of that turn. If you take the Attack action on that turn, you can make your Weapon attacks with Advantage.

BLADED FINALITY
Starting at 18th level, you can choose an additional 5 targets for your One with the Blade attack.

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Please tell me what you all think of the subclass so far? :)
I feel there can be room in 5e for more specialised and focused subclasses.

daemonaetea
2019-02-23, 09:45 AM
I like the idea of the class, but there's a few mechanical issues that are holding it back.

First, the armor ability is the only thing the class has which needs both DEX and STR. The other options all allow you to choose from the two. To simplify, and reduce this single instance of MAD, I'd probably just change that armor to 13+DEX. True, that's more useful for the DEX Swordlord than the STR based one, but a STR based Swordlord is probably just going to strap on their heavy armor anyway.

Second, every single one of these abilities seems to trigger from a separate pool. I'm imagining a high level Swordlord with 5 separate boxes on his sheet to keep track of which of his abilities he's used up and triggered, and which he hasn't. I think the class would be stronger overall if you collapsed all of these pools down to a single resource pool that powers the class's abilities. Maybe half-level, round up, refreshing on a short rest?

Third, Parry needs some manner of boost, or else Riposte is simply the superior option. Reducing incoming damage by 1d8 is, beyond your first few levels, simply not very much. If you turn the resource into a pool of dice, maybe simply allowing multiple dice to be used on this roll? If you're low on health, it might be worth it then to use a big chunk of your dice to keep from going down.

Last, the capstone. I think it's just not powerful enough to be a capstone, which usually is a big reward. In this case you go from hitting 5 enemies within 30 feet to hitting 10 enemies within 30 feet. In actual play that's unlikely to be much of an upgrade, as having that many enemies that close is something of a rarer occurrence. Since Projection of Blades appears to be mechanically similar to the Hunter Ranger's "attack all the people" option, I'd probably look to it for inspiration of a different capstone ability.

JNAProductions
2019-02-23, 12:41 PM
This feels, fundamentally, kinda boring. It's literally just "I'm good with a sword." And that can apply to literally ANY Fighter.

Even the Champion, generally considered the most boring of the boring, has some stuff like Remarkable Athlete, that'll apply to out of combat stuff and can have some interesting benefits.

I'd workshop the fluff a little-try to rejigger the concept into something more interesting. Daemonaetea had good feedback too.